UK could run out of water

BRITAIN would run out of clean drinking water within days of a no-deal Brexit in a doomsday scenario that convinced the UK’s environment minister Michael Gove to back Theresa May’s deal.

Disaster planners have warned British ministers that leaving the EU without a deal could spark a national crisis, as crucial chemicals used in water purification are imported to the UK from Europe.

The deliveries risk getting caught in weeks of border chaos if Britain quits the EU next March without Ms May’s deal with Brussels being approved by MPs in London.

The vital chemicals are timed to arrive ‘just in time’ and cannot be stockpiled as they are too volatile, meaning water plants would have to turn off the taps as soon as they ran out or risk poisoning millions. Offices, schools and hospitals would close.

The startling warning is contained in secret civil service contingency plans codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, which were leaked to the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The scale of the potential devastation is understood to be a key factor in convincing Cabinet Brexiteers, led by Mr Gove, that a deal must be sought at all costs.

Mr Gove has subsequently warned more junior ministerial colleagues that he has taken ‘the no deal pill’ and seen how bad things will get and judged that it is not a viable exit route from the EU for the UK. His friends have said that, as one of the architects of Brexit, Mr Gove does not want the legacy of the referendum campaign to be death and chaos.

The threat of water shortages in hospitals was also behind health secretary Matt Hancock telling the British cabinet that he ‘could not guarantee that people would not die’ in the event of no deal.

In order to make water safe to drink, suppliers add chemicals, including fluorosilicic acid, aluminium sulphate, calcium hydroxide and sodium silicofluoride.

The Operation Yellowhammer contingency plans warn that if water plants run out of the substances they ‘would probably need to stop the water supply to all their customers – potentially millions of people’.

The doomsday vision would see householders ‘immediately face a shortage of drinking water and inability to flush toilets, cook, wash clothes or keep themselves clean’.

It adds: ‘Millions of people would not be able to go to work because office buildings, schools and other workplaces would need to close.’